Graduate Consortium: Democratizing Computational Tools

People increasingly rely on computing for activities at home and work, but for many, it is no longer sufficient to use the scripted tasks supported by packaged software. Instead, many people now produce their own computational solutions, such as spreadsheets, web sites, educational media and simulations, automated business procedures, and scientific visualizations.

Unfortunately, the tools for creating these solutions often neglect the needs of disadvantaged users or smaller user groups. Supporting these groups effectively requires research not only from computer science, but also sociology, education, design, psychology, business, and other disciplines.

The goal of the VL/HCC graduate consortium is to bring together students from these different backgrounds and explore ways of democratizing access to information technology. This might involve increasing participation in programs that teach computational thinking, lowering the barriers to learning programming, or inventing approaches to programming in unexplored domains. It could also involve explaining the nature of computational thinking and the growing class divide that it represents.

Why you should participate...

Present your work to a smaller, more attentive audience before the conference.

Get detailed, critical, constructive feedback from a diverse panel of experts

Meet other students working on similar problems prior to the main conference

If you're a graduate student in the U.S., NSF will cover most of your expenses (travel, lodging, registration, food, etc.).

Participating (deadline Friday, May 28th)

Who Can ParticipateCurrent Ph.D. students are preferred, but M.S. students who intend to go on to pursue a Ph.D. may also apply. Students who have participated no more than once in previous VL/HCC graduate consortiums may also apply.

Applicants may be in different phases of their graduate work and the abstract should reflect this. For example:

Post-proposal students: Submit a real research paper with motivation, concrete plans, and references to important related work in the field.

Pre-proposal students: Submit details on a preliminary study or project/project and discuss its implications for your future research.

New students: Submit ideas for research projects you want to pursue, details about your approach, and citations to related work.

The CV and abstract may be separate PDFs.

Selection Process
For one third of the participation slots, students who have participated once before will be given priority. The remaining slots will be given to students who are new to the event. Each student from the returning group will be linked with new students in a mentoring arrangement.

Posters
Selected students will be asked to prepare a poster for a poster session during the main conference. Details forthcoming.

Travel Support
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has granted funding to help cover student travel, lodging, registration, food, etc. Eligibility is limited to graduate students attending U.S. universities and research institutions (including both US and non-US citizens).

However, graduate students attending institutions from outside the U.S. can participate and are encouraged to obtain other forms of financial support.

Schedule
The event will be a full day on Tuesday, September 21st, the day before the main conference. All participating students are expected to attend the main conference. All other conference attendees are invited to attend the event to listen to the presentations, interact with the participants, and add to the feedback available to the presenters. No additional sign-up process or registration fee is involved.